TY  - JOUR
A1  - Götten, Falk
A1  - Havermann, Marc
A1  - Braun, Carsten
A1  - Marino, Matthew
A1  - Bil, Cees
T1  - Wind-tunnel and CFD investigations of UAV landing gears and turrets – Improvements in empirical drag estimation
T2  - Aerospace Science and Technology
N2  - This paper analyzes the drag characteristics of several landing gear and turret configurations that are representative of unmanned aircraft tricycle landing gears and sensor turrets. A variety of these components were constructed via 3D-printing and analyzed in a wind-tunnel measurement campaign. Both turrets and landing gears were attached to a modular fuselage that supported both isolated components and multiple components at a time. Selected cases were numerically investigated with a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes approach that showed good accuracy when compared to wind-tunnel data. The drag of main gear struts could be significantly reduced via streamlining their cross-sectional shape and keeping load carrying capabilities similar. The attachment of wheels introduced interference effects that increased strut drag moderately but significantly increased wheel drag compared to isolated cases. Very similar behavior was identified for front landing gears. The drag of an electro-optical and infrared sensor turret was found to be much higher than compared to available data of a clean hemisphere-cylinder combination. This turret drag was merely influenced by geometrical features like sensor surfaces and the rotational mechanism. The new data of this study is used to develop simple drag estimation recommendations for main and front landing gear struts and wheels as well as sensor turrets. These recommendations take geometrical considerations and interference effects into account.
Y1  - 2020
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.fh-aachen.de/opus4/frontdoor/index/index/docId/9401
SN  - 1270-9638
VL  - 107
IS  - Art. 106306
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -